The Fat Virgin

We had dinner ashore last night and enjoyed catching up with Derek, one of the managers we met at Cooper Island four years ago. He seemed quite proud of the changes at CIBC and said that they have been a busy destination spot for both the sailing crowd and people staying at the resort. He offered to show us around in the morning, but we needed to head out early to get underway for a long day's sail.

We are now located in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda, very close to the luxury island owned by Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Airways, and other "Virgin" properties). You may recall a news story about Kate Winslett saving some of Sir Richard's guests during a recent fire on the island. She came out sounding like a hero but that may have just been some good PR spin.

Today's journey on the "Journey" was intense. Winds were high but at least coming from a better direction so we only needed to tack twice during a four hour sail. The wind speed indicator showed gusts over 20 knots (it seemed pretty strong to me) and we made good time. We tied up to a mooring ball at Leverick Bay and relaxed before bringing our boat into a slip. Because I'm a member of "TravelTalkOnline," an online travel message board, we were able to stay on a slip for the price of a mooring ball. After a few nights tied to a ball, it's nice to walk ashore, refresh our water supply and just spend some time on land.

Coincidentally, the name "Swifty Sails" comes from my username on TravelTalkOnline. When I joined, I picked the name "Swifty" as a wink to the nickname Jon gave me many years ago. I think he was poking fun at my occasional less-than-graceful physical blunders (see yesterday's post about the boat hook for reference). Hopefully "Swifty Sails" will be as entertaining as a blog as I have been for Jon.

Here are some shots of "Journey's End" in Leverick Bay...

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